Options for OpenMRS drug management

While observations within OpenMRS have been used as workaround for all of these, the vision for drug orders, dispensing, and administration is:

  • Drug Orders (i.e., prescriptions) are part of orders in OpenMRS core.

  • Dispensing is within the purview of a pharmacy system/module. Dispensing events could be added as observation as well, but the “truth” of dispensing events and the any dispsensing-related features (e.g., inventory) lie within the scope of a pharmacy system.

  • Administration is within the purview of a medication administration system/module. While administration events could also be added as observations, the “truth” of administration events and any administration-specific features lie within the scope of a drug administration system (e.g., eMAR).

So, we’d look to modules for dispensing & administration features. We could probably say the same for any advanced drug ordering features, since the OpenMRS core should be focusing on the fundamental pieces of EHR information needed across all systems in their simplest form.